The present invention relates to laminated floorings and has been developed with particular concern for its possible use in sports facilities; the invention should not, however, be considered as limited to this possible field of application.
In the field of sports flooring, installations for games such as basketball, volleyball and like sports are of particular importance, for which the characteristics of the flooring can be of considerable importance.
It may in fact be important that the flooring, in addition to having a uniform and regular surface appearance, has equally uniform and regular biomechanical properties, particularly with regard to vertical stresses applied by the athletes and by the equipment (for example balls) which move on the flooring.
For this reason, a conventional solution, which is much used for the formation of installations such as basketball courts, makes use of wooden flooring of the type usually termed parquet, usually made from an array of strips which rest on, and are fixed to the ground and which support an array of wooden strips, defining the flooring proper.
The characteristics of such floorings, in some countries, have even been the subject of specific technical standards. The standard DIN 18032 may be mentioned in this respect.
These conventional solutions have, however, a series of disadvantages.
A first disadvantage, which is considerable, is that they are very expensive, as well as being expensive to lay.
A further problem, which is equally important, is due to the fact that--at least in most cases--such wooden floorings do not lend themselves to installation in the open air whereby their use is in fact limited to closed environments.
A further problem is that the achievement of good biomechanical characteristics is linked preferentially to the formation of fixed installations. There is, however, an increasing demand for installations which can be laid on a site when needed but can then be removed when the same site is to be used for other purposes: this is the case, for example, for installations such as sports halls which, in addition to the sporting events themselves, are used for other types of entertainment such as concerts, conventions and social functions of various types, etc.